The account is brief but sad. The development of the lie in the long-lived ancients was such that within a few generations it had reached maturity. Self-seeking had developed into a fearful degree of violence and evil. God in a most singular way decided to bring judgment, to recall the gift of life He had given in trust to His creatures, which they had dedicated to Lucifer in principle if not in conscious allegiance. He chose a man of faith and his family to present the final message of mercy and prepare a method of survival. As Noah proclaimed the divine verdict and sentence, and the coming execution of judgment, he also must have reviewed the record of what had led to such serious intervention. In an amazing display of how ripe the rejection of selfless love had become, in the end not one outside Noah’s family believed the warning, repented, and accepted the remedy. The global destruction that came, and the preparation to avoid it that God provided, have ever since been types of what will come at the end of the controversy. But they were only types, as the full development had not yet come. However, God in giving Noah and his descendants the long-range remedy for sin, made promises that still apply to our day, and will forever. An everlasting covenant, embodying a blending of mercy and justice in a beautiful spectrum represented in the rainbow, was clearly explained, an expansion of the first promise given at the fall. The lesson of Noah’s experience is a message of righteousness by faith, of living the self-sacrificing life based on the evidences God has given of that being the only way of life. For humanity in its sinfulness, this way is entered by repentance. The call is to turn from self-seeking in response to a revelation of God Himself, and accept His mode of living, as well as His instructions for the present time. For the individual and the human race, there is no other option for survival.
